Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

Departmental Contingent Liability Notification (Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme)

lord callanan: My Right Honourable friend the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (Alok Sharma) has today made the following statement: I am tabling this statement for the benefit of Honourable and Right Honourable Members to bring to their attention the details of the Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme. Like the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme, the Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme will be facilitated by the Government-owned British Business Bank and delivered through its delivery partners. Lenders will offer loans of between £30,000 and £50 million to support viable businesses with a turnover of £45 million and above that are affected by the coronavirus outbreak. There will be no limit on the number and aggregate value of loans that can be made under the scheme. The scheme is available on a temporary basis from 20 April for an initial six months, and can be extended as required. The key parameters of the scheme are as follows: the percentage of the remaining balance of each loan that is guaranteed by the Government will be 80 per cent; there will be no portfolio cap for the lender, enabling lenders to benefit from capital relief to help lenders to price loans competitively; a personal guarantee approach that mirrors the existing CBILS programme (no personal guarantees permitted on loans below £250,000, and personal guarantees up to a maximum of 20 per cent of losses post-business recovery); interest charged at commercial rates (but lenders are expected to ‘pass through’ benefit of the guarantee); businesses with turnover of up to £250m can access a maximum debt facility of £25m, those with higher turnovers can access facilities of up to £50m; and facilities will be available with a maximum term of three years. The new scheme was launched on 20 April. The Government will be subject to a new statutory contingent liability, and I will be laying a Departmental Minute today containing a description of the liability undertaken.For more information on this and other support for business, please go to https://www.businesssupport.gov.uk/

Contingencies Fund Advance

lord callanan: My Honourable friend the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Minister for Business and Industry) Nadhim Zahawi has today made the following statement:I hereby give notice of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy having drawn advances from the contingencies fund totalling £12,409,000,000 to enable expenditure on Covid-19 support packages for business to be spent ahead of the passage of the Supply and Appropriation Act. The schemes are:Small Business Grant SchemeGrant scheme for retail, hospitality, and leisure sectors.  Small Business Grant SchemeGrant scheme for retail, hospitality, leisure sectorsTotal £mRDEL7,3305,07912,409 The funding is urgently required to support businesses during the Coronavirus pandemic, and to enable local authorities to administer the scheme.Parliamentary approval for additional resources of £12,409,000,000 will be sought in a Main Estimate for the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. Pending that approval, urgent expenditure estimated at £12,409,000,000 has been met by repayable cash advances from the Contingencies Fund. The cash advances will be repaid upon receiving Royal Assent on the Supply and Appropriation Bill.

Department for Work and Pensions

Pensions: Response to COVID-19

baroness stedman-scott: My honourable Friend, The Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Pensions & Financial Inclusion (Guy Opperman MP) has made the following Written Statement.I am writing to inform the House of the steps this Government is taking to support pension savers, pension schemes, trustees, employers and existing pensioners during the Coronavirus pandemic.   General Pensions Levy On 31 March 2020, the Government revoked the planned increase in the general pensions levy on occupational and personal pension schemes that was due to take effect on 1 April 2020. The levy recovers funding provided by the DWP in respect of the core activities of The Pensions Ombudsman, and part of the activities of The Pensions Regulator and the Money and Pensions Service. These measures will result in an estimated £4.9m of savings for the private pensions sector. We will now be focused on reviewing the structure of the levy and engaging with industry, at the appropriate time, on the best way forward on levy funding.  Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme Key to supporting both businesses and pension savers is the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) which offer an unprecedented package of support for businesses. This scheme has been designed to be as straightforward as possible, ensuring it aligns with and works for most business practices. Under this scheme, the grants available to employers will support business by covering up to 80 per cent of a furloughed worker’s regular salary, capped at £2,500 per month. Additionally, these grants will also cover employer pension contributions into registered pension schemes on behalf of furloughed employees for any workplace pension scheme. Employers can claim up to the minimum employer pension contribution of 3 per cent of qualifying earnings required under employers’ automatic enrolment duties, even if it’s not an automatic enrolment pension scheme. By easing the burden of workplace pensions for employers with furloughed staff we are helping them better manage costs during the crisis whilst supporting long-term saving for the future. The measures recognise the importance of protecting the hard won improvements in retirement provision for millions of savers achieved through automatic enrolment. The CJRS went live on 20th April and claims can be backdated to 1st March where workers have already been furloughed. Information on the scheme can be found here:https://www.businesssupport.gov.uk/faqs/ To help support employers, the Pensions Regulator has detailed guidance on its website here:https://www.thepensionsregulator.gov.uk/en/covid-19-coronavirus-what-you-need-to-consider/automatic-enrolment-and-pension-contributions-covid-19-guidance-for-employers. We are continuing to work closely with the pensions industry to explain the detail of the CJRS scheme and to help providers take a pragmatic approach to disruptions to workplace pensions experienced by their clients.   Defined Benefit Schemes The Government also recognises that these are challenging times for Defined Benefit pension schemes. The current scheme funding regime, overseen by the Pensions Regulator, is sufficiently flexible to cope with the current situation and the Regulator’s guidance published on 27 March sets out specific easements to its regulatory regime in recognition of the difficulties that some schemes and sponsors may have in the context of the current emergency. This can be found at:https://www.thepensionsregulator.gov.uk/en/covid-19-coronavirus-what-you-need-to-consider/db-scheme-funding-covid-19-guidance-for-employers The best possible protection for members of Defined Benefit schemes is a strong profitable employer, and with the existing flexibilities and easements there is no reason why a pension scheme should push an otherwise viable employer into insolvency. In the event where a sponsoring employer does become insolvent, and the scheme is not well enough funded to secure full benefits, the Pension Protection Fund, which is well equipped to weather market turbulence, will pay members compensation. The Pensions Regulator has already set out its expectations of trustees of both Defined Benefit and Defined Contribution pension schemes and for employers and administrators, including the key risks they should focus on. The Regulator has confirmed that it will take a proportionate and risk-based approach towards compliance and enforcement decisions during these challenging times, with the aim of supporting employers, providers and savers.  Pension Scams and Transfers The Government is committed to protecting savers during these unprecedented times and we are working with regulators to identify additional ways to support and safeguard individuals. At present, there is no robust evidence to suggest that savers are making hasty decisions to transfer pension funds or are being targeted by fraudsters. However, we are continuing to work closely with The Pensions Regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the Money and Pensions Advisory Service (MaPS) and pension providers to identify any new trends or issues and will take proportionate action if required. In addition, we have supported the collaborative approach the Pensions Regulator, the FCA and MaPS have taken, communicating to savers to use MaPS, Pensions Wise or the Pensions Advisory Service channels for guidance before making decisions about retirement to protect people against scams. Furthermore, MaPS has produced information and guides to support individuals in making decisions about their money, debt and pensions at this challenging time. This includes reiterating that where appropriate Pension Wise guidance sessions can help an individual to understand their options fully. This can be found at :https://www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/en/articles/coronavirus-what-it-means-for-you Access to State Pension and benefits for people asked to shield themselves  There are approximately 900,000 users of the Post Office Card Account (POca) system for accessing their pensions or benefits. These POca customers ordinarily need to leave the house to access payments at the Post Office. The Department has worked closely with the National Shielding Service which is contacting clinically vulnerable citizens who have been advised by NHS England to shield as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic. We launched a new service on 10th April through which we have contacted 27,000 citizens who have POca accounts and we considered who may need support to access their Benefit or State Pension payment. The Department has worked tirelessly to identify those older, vulnerable customers who urgently require help to access their payments. For those needing help, DWP Visiting Officers are able to discuss a number of options available to customers over the phone and we have worked closely with Post Office Ltd to provide contact free cash payments by Royal Mail Special Delivery to support the most vulnerable, with guaranteed next day delivery. This cash service adds to a range of measures we are using to support these individuals shielding at home.  State Pension In November 2019 the Government announced measures to increase most state pension rates by 3.9% in line with the annual growth in earnings, at the same time as announcing an end to the benefit freeze. This meant that on 6 April 2020 the full rate of the basic State Pension increased from £129.20 to £134.25 per week and the full rate of the new State Pension increased from £168.60 to £175.20 per week - with working age benefits uprated by inflation. This was the largest increase in state pension in eight years.


This statement has also been made in the House of Commons: 
HCWS200

Department for Education

Arrangements for awarding qualifications this summer

baroness berridge: My right honourable friend the Minister of State for School Standards (Nick Gibb) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.I would like to update the House on arrangements for awarding qualifications in England this summer following the Secretary of State’s previous Written Ministerial Statement (HCWS176) made on 23 March.In the Secretary of State’s previous statement, he said that the independent qualifications regulator, Ofqual, would develop and set out a process for GCSEs, AS levels and A levels that would provide a calculated grade to each student which reflects their performance as fairly as possible, and work with the exam boards to ensure this was consistently applied for all students.On 3 April, Ofqual set out details on how GCSEs, AS and A levels will be awarded this summer. The information can be found on Gov.uk.Ofqual has also launched a consultation on aspects of the new system for grading these qualifications, with a deadline for response of 29 April. The consultation is available on Gov.uk.I can confirm that AS and A level results will be published on 13 August and GCSE results on 20 August, as originally planned.Releasing results on the planned dates will enable students to progress to higher or further education and allow students time to decide whether they wish to sit exams in the autumn term, and to prepare for those exams if necessary.I can also confirm that we are continuing to work at pace with Ofqual to determine the approaches to assessment and awarding of vocational and technical qualifications, as well as other general qualifications which are not GCSEs, AS levels or A levels. On 9 April, Ofqual set out its approach for the assessment and awarding of these qualifications. Qualifications which are used for progression to further and higher education should, as far as possible, be treated in the same way as GCSEs, AS and A levels, with students receiving a calculated result. Calculated results will draw appropriately on a range of evidence, depending on the structure of the qualification. It will not be appropriate to issue calculated results for all vocational and technical qualifications, such as those used to signal occupational competence. These qualifications should, wherever possible, receive adapted assessments. The information can be found on Gov.uk.On 24 April, Ofqual also launched a consultation on implementation of these measures. The consultation closes on 8 May. It can be found on Gov.uk.The aim is to ensure that results for vocational and technical qualifications and other general qualifications that are used for progression to further or higher education are made available at the same time as GCSEs, AS and A levels.


This statement has also been made in the House of Commons: 
HCWS199